


On and On

by Icej



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 21:47:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19777090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icej/pseuds/Icej
Summary: A cycle begins anew. On and on.





	On and On

Raava existed.

She knew not whence she came from and knew not the passage of time. She was Eternal; a state neither purveyed with consciousness, nor deprived of it. 

Vaatu existed.

She abruptly became conscious of another being, a malicious force so opposed to her own it attacked her core with its mere presence. They were ineluctably drawn to each other and locked into a vicious battle where every touch burned and their hearts withered.

The land existed. 

Raava became conscious of it as she noticed the damage caused by their struggle. The broken valleys. The bloodied mountains. She ached for the land.

And so the Spirits came forth to heal it.

But Vaatu tainted them with darkness just as she would suffuse them with precious light. Everywhere they rolled, the Spirits would wither and blacken. Grow evil. 

And so the Humans came forth to heal them. 

So different were they from Spiritual nature, that they could neither be influenced by Raava nor Vaatu. Light and dark, hate and virtue, were not imposed on them but poured from their neutral cores. Humans were gifted with Free Will.

It was their Free Will that brought Raava’s downfall.

A Human chose to break her bloodied cycle with Vaatu. And Vaatu was gone. 

She turned on the mortal so full of Wrath she could very well have been corrupted, but she did not remark it, she did not realize, so full of fear and furor was she. Raava had been too long in Vaatu’s presence.

The Human’s words did not appease her. She set off. But as Vaatu grew their paths crossed again, again, and she could not refrain from aiding him… It was in her core. Soon they were allies.

They faced Vaatu at the next Harmonic Convergence. And they fought.

It was not quite enough.

So they merged like he had asked, like she had refused, so full of fear. They fought and the Human weakened, burned, poisoned by Vaatu’s malevolence. Her core shivered inside the Human’s limbs.

Then—

They are one—

Their consciences merge—

The fusion is a shock so powerful and absolute that for an instant she is totally Human, her core dissipated. And she is no longer Eternal.

But they defeat Vaatu.

And they defeat others. They fight for so long, and shed light, and for a crucial instant, they are happy.

When he dies, Raava feels a shock so powerful and absolute that for an instant she is totally gone. Blood pulses from a rip in his abdomen. She is torn from his body. But their essences remain merged.

Wan!

"Don't worry. We will be together for all of your lifetimes, and we will never give up!”

No matter how many bodies she lives through, she will never forget the hoarseness of his last breath.

  
…

She slowly curls her toes, breathless, staring over the edge of the cliff. Wind whistles through her lashes; she dances. 

…

Raava watches her talk and walk and die.

…

Oma and Shu live and love under his silent gaze. He feels Earthbending rock society to its shaking roots.

…

She brings the flame to the dragon with a fierce sense of pride. The savage little blaze almost rips through her fingers; but she controls it. The great beast doesn’t blink. He leans. She tightens her lips.

Behind her, the Sun Warriors.

… 

Freedom is so total it consumes her entire being. She dies as the Wind.

…

They laugh

… 

She refuses to leave her hometown and locks away all her bending. Raava withers.

…

She dances with the Sun Warriors and liberates her Sun Sisters and they fight and fight and bend!

… 

He errs, singing love, sowing peace.

...

The fury grows and roars and burns her way through the ice as she screams and screams  
and screams

Raava tears her way through her way through her unconscious body as the soldiers leave and soon she bends the veins out of their mouths. 

…

He is ferocious with every dissident. His past lives whisper to him. 

…

He loves an incredible man with all his might and he feels like this is the most beautiful thing he will achieve.

… 

Raava breaks her silence and rips him away from his daughter.

… 

Raava talks and she talks and they whisper and shout. Then weakness strikes her and the illness takes her voice.

But their thoughts still echo. 

…

A terrible war scars the land and scars his flesh. The tiles of noble families’ courtyards are swept with blood. The children of the poor are raped and killed.

…

One day as she stands on the beach she sees—a huge canoe on the horizon Then another. Then another.. They watch the canoes arrive. Strangely colored people march like ants on the rock. The Warriors squint suspiciously. 

… 

She thinks of freedom as the paroxysm of selfishness. So she locks herself up in desolation and stone, theorizes abnegation.

… 

They never speak.

…

The jasmine wreathes a heady scent around their many pots of clay. His sister amuses herself with paint and his father smiles at their golden fields. 

…

Nothing.

… 

Furious, the little Avatar in the Temple that is carved of air.  
Furious, the little Avatar in the Temple that is carved so narrow.

…

He doesn’t know why the ices melt or freeze; he doesn’t know why the dawn rises pink. What is beyond the sea and salt? Where do the women go past the end of the road?

…

She pushes the stone-filled cart up the hill. Her friend is lying in the hay with a lazy grin. Once she has pushed the wagon to the top, she settles down and fiddles with their dresses.

…

The dragons scream fire and gather in a murderous horde and they KILL  
and the Sun Warriors KILL

But the Others bring weapons and Lizard Beasts. Soon they take all the fertile plains. 

...

She laughs and dances and wonders why she feels her core is made of light.

… 

Uneventful.

…

She smiles a crooked grin that scarcely conceals her cruelty. One day her son mysteriously dies and Raava curls up so deep that her consciousness ceases. 

…

He stands on the dying embers of his civilization.  
Dying embers and charred hearts.

... 

Raava slowly unfurls and as he grows, no savage rictus mars his face. Kindness is in sweet words and soft caresses. He strokes the slightest breeze with awe. 

…

He connects to his past lives and  
it hurts so much

…

The Avatar State rips through his body as he kills his wife. 

…

He oversees the rigorous application of their religion and spares no mercy on the savages. Their eyes and customs are only a proof of their barbaric nature.  
Soon a council is born.  
Of course he is a Sage.

… 

His wonderful lips curl back on straight white teeth

They laugh

… 

Her father softly cradles her as her mother draws. She breathes in deeply the crook of his neck. He smells of pepper.

…

He studies his old body in the mirror. His skin sags. The muscles are hidden. And the hair everywhere is in tatters. White and leather. Steamy folds of laughter.

From the other room, curses and triumph erupts. His son calls him for the next fucking card game, please!

…

So many dragons are destroyed that the remainder hides in distant peaks and clouds of smoke. The Others hate the Sun Warriors, detest the skin, abhor the eyes.  
The Tribes wither and choke on their desolate hills.

And the lush fields fill with Others’ rice.

… 

She theorizes a new political system and brings together thousands without a leader. Elected councils and commissions and assemblies campaign and fight for the equal redistribution of farming land. Women vote. Children leave the fields. 

The monarchy awaits her old age to strike and annihilate their miracle. 

… 

He dismembers them, obliterates them. And with contempt and precious laughter he deems them barbarians; vindictively wipes the Water Tribes’ History of their mere presence.

To the dying days of Time they will skulk as savages.

To the dying days of Time they will hide. 

...

Small shards of ice in the steam of summer. Shivers as light glances of fresh paint. The sea smiles at her though she is of Earth, and she does not know why it feels so familiar.

…

A fire is kindled in a hearth; a heart is kindled in the palm of his hand. He bends to her face and they kiss as the flames –  
laugh

…

She studies very hard. Others feel disconnected. 

…

He does not know who these barbarians are, and why they attack his Tribe every winter!

… 

I don’t want to DIE 

…  
She is a soldier on the front-lines. She sleeps on rocks and dirt. She does not shower. She is harassed by her superiors. And she is scared.  
But she murders Warriors without questions because she is an animal of fear and hate and necessity. Why do they feel so familiar?  
Raava whispers but she does not hear. Oh, when she Airbends she might understand.  
They are I.

…

Air whistles through the empty halls of the Temple. He cries.

…

She discovers the Southern Ice and fears she should not have.

...

Their farm grows beautiful and they adopt many children. They are raised between enchanted woods and warm laughter. They are loved through golden fields and smiles. They breathe their last in each other’s arms, skin so soft, without a care in the world.

…

This one looks so much like Wan that Raava almost awakes.  
Almost.

...

She refuses to go the Temple and screams and clings to her brother. Air whistles through the empty halls. She cries.

Lost in an ancient haze, the cries of a boy echo her own. 

…

One day she is fishing and sifting the cold currents with her family and as they start a fire, she breathes flames.

The spark darkens the hollows of their faces and alights their shaken eyes.

…

She is born of sands and cleverly hides her face. Dirty clothes and sweaty skin. She is cunning and she is shrewd. Soon she hacks her way through all her rivals and she becomes of the richest of this land of dust and crimes.

She slyly hides her jewels and gold in a legendary cavern sealed with spirit magic, savage charms, deathly hallows. When she dies, her daughter becomes a pirate.

But even she will never find the Avatar’s Cave.

…

He helps his little brother into the world and his mother smiles and his father sighs and –  
he cries 

…

He remembers that one day she slowly curled her toes, breathless, staring over the edge of the cliff. Wind whistled through her lashes and she danced.

But she is I.

… 

In a swamp he is born and in a swamp he grows and laughs. As he matures he begins to realize: the trees murmur to him and he is of their kind.

…

Uneventful.

…

Uneventful. 

… 

He runs away from the Temple and hides for so long that he forgets how to bend. Raava has stayed silent for so long that she has forgotten how so speak.

…

She loves and loves and loves and smiles and laughs

When she laughs, she can almost hear echoes in her bones

…

The people of the Earth are persistant and diverse. Like ancient oaks they stand; shoulder toil and soil. No respite for the weary.  
Their family are their roots and strength; community prevails over the individual.  
I am a woman of the One People and I stand strong.

…

The Avatar coughs. 

…

Who are you?

I feel you in my bones.

But Raava has forgotten how to speak.

… 

For a second she wonders where Raava is.  
Then the hands tighten around her throat. Precious oxygen turns rancid in her lungs.  
And all is dark.

…

He reaches out to his mother with a sloppy grin as he child looks on, round eyes, curiosity. They laugh when the daughter burps loudly.

… 

This time the Avatar is born a Sage. And with so much power, he becomes a Fire Lord.

… 

She contemplates the empty hollow left by the Runaway Avatar. No statue for him. On either side of her, stone-faced Avatars sternly glower.

Stone-faced statues.

Ha.

Ha.

(And Airbender humor is born)

…

Dark. Warmth. Liquid. Soft. Love. Dark. Love.  
The mother slides over the ice and a smile blossoms upon her face, flowering upon her red cheeks, alighting her shining eyes. Raava screams in the womb and she screams but the mother doesn’t hear—  
The ice cracks and she falls to her death.

…

He has absolutely no interest whatsoever in being the Avatar. He even studies the arts and crafts of cauldrons! The children love his tricks and blue potions, the poofs, the spoofs, the loofs and even the toofs!  
The first Empire is constituted in the meantime and destroys his life in a ravaging sweep. 

… 

She oversees the construction of the Imperial City and races with her own imperial little thoughts. Dark laughs.  
Someone laces her tea with death.

… 

His teacher is wonderful and secretly allows him to visit his mother. He like many has been found too late... The distance with his kin is ripping him apart.

His teacher is wonderful and she laughs. What do you think of the statues? Are they stone-faced?!

…

This one is whimsical and loves to play tricks. Her tribe lost in the snow does not like women.

… 

She submits. There is no Avatar in this era and the empire crumbles to ash. Rubble cuts through the scabs of her lips.

…

“Sisters and Brothers, we… we must hide.”  
Eight years old whisper whisper.  
Don’t die.

…

He is too stricken for jokes.

…

“Ey, you wanna go over the edge of the ridge?”  
And the eyes they twinkle merrily, the grin is mysterious and mischievous. His breath hitches, he follows the flash of white teeth and flush of red cheek into the snow. Her raven hair gleams silver.

…

She closes her eyes and feels the dark nuts of rock beneath the Earth, feels them hum in response, feels them connected to every nerve and feels her power! She rips them out of the soil, muscles bulging, sweating, harsh breath hitching!

… 

What am I?  
(Me, I’m me, but I’m fragmented, I’m everywhere, and)  
Am I them?  
(the others, should they have priority over me because they were there before me? Are their desires more valid?)  
Am I I?  
(He feels nothing in his bones …) 

…

His entire philosophy is woven with jokes and he breezes through his classes without bothering to learn anything but funny anecdotes! The masters predict chaos and war and famine and bubonic plague!  
He invents the banjo.

…

They race in the snow  
They laugh!

… 

He waters the redbell in a timid tip of the can and wonders what it is like to step outside. His breaths mists against the glass.

… 

Who was before me?

… 

The woman smiles at him and blushes slightly, taking in his shining skin and tattoos. 

…

The Avatar is repulsed by the barbaric peoples of Southern Ices. It has consequences.

…

So many Tribes scattered throughout the Land now destroyed, now absorbed! And one day the last of the free people watch those men all dressed the same flood the valley throughout the ridge. They cry with dread. And they know it is over.

…

She drowns at the age of three because the sea calls to her. The mother is an unimportant noblewoman and returns to her husband.

…

She is never discovered.

…

She Firebends to impress him and 

he smiles

… 

A great rebellion sweeps the land with rage and chaos. The men and women organize a peasant army and charge Ba Sing Se with vengeance, masses upon masses of oppressed folks armed with pitchforks and rudimental bending. They flood the horizon in a tide of red. She watches them with contempt and her eyes grew bloody.  
As they approach she screams  
and screams  
and screams  
And grasps masses upon masses of Earth and Rock in her fingers, pulling her arms up as if ripping her entire being out of the soil—The pain the torture—  
But the invaders are pureed.  
And those massive barriers Earth and Rock become the Great Walls of Ba Sing Se.

…

She plunges her eyes into the mirror and glimpses a specter crawling through her throat, coiled around her ribs, and she screeches—  
But the light is already gone.  
Almost. 

…

Nothing.

…

He renovates the entire capital and sculpts a society made of ice and severity. Women are denied a warrior status because she are inferior.

…

He contemplates the great walls of Ba Sing Se blankly, his minuscule plot of land swathed in their shadow.

…

He laughs

…

She remembers that long ago, she theorized abnegation. No jokes will impede the enforcement of what is right.  
Peace is enforced and duties are honored.

… 

He surfs and laughs. Fish is plenty, life is easy. And she’s so beautiful, and she loves him, and he’s never had to want for anything.  
A grotesque monster dances into their life and steals her face.

…

She is of the only Tribe yet unconquered. This will remain so forever as long as she is their guardian, as long as she is the master of all elements.  
And he refuses to bow to her power, the puny man. He cannot see the world past the tip of his groin.  
As far as she is concerned, he has chosen to die the moment he resists.

…

He is born on the same day as his best-friend and grows up feeling blessed.  
Blessing becomes poison.

…

He endures many trials and brings freedom to the world.

…  


**RAAVA DON’T NO DON’T  
TAKE RAAVA**  


Raava exists.

A shock so powerful and absolute that for an instant she is gone, wiped totally clean, barely conscious of her own being.

Vaatu exists.

His malicious core reaches out to hers with its vicious tentacles and she feels ineluctably drawn and squirms in fear—

The warm envelope around her essence exists.

Or she begins to remark it.

Or it was never there. She does not know.

She floats in the air but her entire self is connected to the energy-turned Human, the Spirit screaming before her. Protecting her.

And Vaatu is destroyed.

“Harmonic convergence is almost over. We must return to the Spirit Portal so we can fuse, once again.”

They dance in the air toward the absolute energy of the Convergence, they dance in the air, the woman perched on her spectral tail. And as they fuse in a shock so powerful and absolute they cease to live, Raava wonders:

Why does this feel so familiar?

.  
..  
…

A cycle begins anew.  
On and on...

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on ffnet in 2015. 
> 
> Very much inspired by "A Thousand Times" by vievere. 
> 
> Thank you to all the readers. :) Reviews are squiggly puppies.


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